The day of this writing,
December 13, 2007, is the 140th anniversary of the birth of
the Norwegian-born physicist Kristian Birkeland. It was
Birkeland who correctly hypothesized in the early 20th
century that electric currents from the Sun power the
earth's auroras. For many decades, the scientific mainstream
largely rejected Birkeland’s thesis, favoring instead the
idea that Earth's magnetosphere is an impenetrable envelope,
"squeezed" by the solar wind to induce auroral activity.
Only when satellites detected the magnetic signatures of
electric currents in the aurora in 1973 was Birkeland's
hypothesis irrefutably validated -- though for another two
decades many astronomers resisted the implications of this
discovery.

In testing his ideas about the Earth/Sun connection,
Birkeland built a vacuum chamber and placed a magnetized
metal ball called a terrella inside it, representing the
Earth. He observed how the terrella behaved in its
artificial, electrically charged atmosphere. In addition to
solving the riddle of Earth's auroras, Birkeland's
electrical experiments also uncannily simulated planetary
rings and the energetic displays of cometary jets. Yet a
full century later, astronomers continue to be mystified by
these phenomena in space. (To see Birkeland's observations
on the electrical properties of comets, published in 1913,
read "Comets:
Kristian Birkeland's theory").

More than a century after Birkeland's polar expedition to
investigate the Northern Lights, mainstream scientists still
express surprise or even astonishment when they observe the
telltale signs of electrical circuitry connecting the earth
and the Sun. That is because they still cling to theoretical
models that conceptually exclude the possibility of
electrical circuits in space -- even when their models are
refuted by new observations that they characterize (and
sometimes discard) as "impossible."

The report discusses the THEMIS spacecraft's recent
observations of "giant magnetic ropes that connect Earth's
upper atmosphere to the Sun and explosions in the outskirts
of Earth's magnetic field." Describing the THEMIS encounter
with a "magnetic rope" NASA investigator Dave Sibeck states:
"It was very large, about as wide as Earth, and located
approximately 40,000 miles above Earth's surface in a region
called the magnetosphere." Investigators observed that the
so-called rope "formed and unraveled in just a few minutes,
providing a brief but significant conduit for solar wind
energy. Other ropes quickly followed: 'They seem to occur
all the time,' says Sibeck."

Magnetic "ropes"? This expression begs the question of how
the fluid dynamics envisioned by NASA can explain a
"rope-like" structure that twists and changes dynamically,
and extends all the way from Earth back to the Sun. NASA
scientists often use the phrase "flux ropes" to describe
these twisted filamentary pathways traversed by charged
particles. But to electrical engineers, such terminology
reveals a deep confusion among astronomers struggling to
comprehend unexpected electrical activity. Professor Donald
E Scott, author of The Electric Sky, says, "Ropes, of
course, have beginnings and ends. Magnetic fields do not. So
this use of language from NASA fails to explain anything,
and is conceptually wrong as well as misleading." (For a
synopsis of Prof. Scott's highly acclaimed book, see
here).

The "ropes" to which the investigators refer are commonly
described in plasma Science as electrical "Birkeland
currents," named after the aforementioned Kristian Birkeland.
The rope-like structure is not just a curiosity; it is the
structure taken by current flow due to the long-range
attraction and short-range repulsion between current
filaments. The "twisted magnetic fields" are simply the
signature of the electric current flow. In plasma cosmology,
these entwined plasma filaments act as transmission lines
carrying "field-aligned" currents across interplanetary and
interstellar space.

A layperson reading the NASA report might believe that the
observation of these "ropes" is news -- as if they had never
been seen before. But Birkeland currents have been the
object of plasma research for more than a century. The term
describes an electric current in a space plasma. It is this
function of plasma filaments that inspires Electric Universe
proponents to assert, "There are no isolated islands in
space!" However, the term "Birkeland current" has never been
included in the mainstream astronomical lexicon. Only in
recent years have astronomers begrudgingly entertained the
concept when evidence has allowed for no alternative.

The NASA report continues, "The mission is only beginning
but THEMIS is already surprising us," says Vassilis
Angelopoulos the mission's principal investigator at the
University of California, Los Angeles.

The surprises for investigators began in March, when "a
substorm erupted over Alaska and Canada, producing vivid
auroras for more than two hours." The report reads: "Right
away the substorm surprised investigators: ‘The auroras
surged westward twice as fast as anyone thought possible,
crossing 15 degrees of longitude in less than one minute,'
says Angelopoulos. The storm had traversed an entire polar
time zone in 60 seconds flat!

"Also, 'the display was surprisingly bursty.' Photographs
taken by ground cameras and NASA's Polar satellite (also
supporting the THEMIS mission) revealed a series of staccato
outbursts each lasting 10 minutes or so. 'Some of the bursts
died out while others reinforced each other and went on to
become major events.'"

The energy of this two-hour outburst -- five hundred
thousand billion Joules -- is roughly the energetic
equivalent of a 5.5 magnitude earthquake. In trying to
discern "where does all that energy come from?" NASA is left
groping for explanations.

The language used by the investigators reveals their
determination to avoid describing obviously electrical
displays in terms of electrical circuitry. Rather, they
cling to ideas of mechanical "collisions" between magnetic
structures -- without explaining how these structures can be
magnetic in the absence of electricity -- somehow generating
the observed energies. The NASA report describes the
"magnetic ropes" (electrical Birkeland currents) observed by
THEMIS as "twisted bundle(s) of magnetic fields organized
much like the twisted hemp of a mariner's rope." This
description is colorful and poetic, but does it amount to a
scientific explanation? Left unanswered is, how are the
ropes created, and why do they twist?

The report continues, "Spacecraft have detected hints of
these ropes before, but a single spacecraft is insufficient
to map their 3D structure. THEMIS's five satellites were
able to perform the feat.

"THEMIS has also observed a number of relatively small
explosions in Earth's magnetic bow shock. 'The bow shock is
like the bow wave in front of a boat,' explains Sibeck. 'It
is where the solar wind first feels the effects of Earth's
magnetic field.' When a knot of magnetism within the solar
wind hits the bow shock--'Bang!' he says. 'We get an
explosion.'"

Using such language to describe the electrical currents and
powerful discharges from solar energy replaces the language
of advanced plasma science with the mechanical language of
wind and water. Nowhere does the report mention the
explosive potentials of the "double-layer," a structure
common to all plasma sheaths -- the cellular strictures,
such as Earth’s magnetosphere, around charged objects in a
plasma.

A double-layer consists of two parallel layers of opposite
electrical charge. A catastrophic rise in voltage across the
structure may result when flow is cut off. This causes the
double-layer to "explode" -- as observed when a circuit
breaker is opened incorrectly. The explosions THEMIS has
observed are the predictable effects of instabilities in the
interface of Earth’s plasma sheath, and the out-flowing
charged particles of the solar wind.

Clarity can be gained on many space phenomena, including
unpredictable outbursts of comets, supernovae, and coronal
mass ejections, if astronomers will consider the
well-documented dynamics of electrical double-layer
explosions. The irony here is that by clinging to
gravity-only dogma ("no electricity in space"!) -- a dogma
codified before we had the tools of modern plasma science --
mainstream astronomy has obstructed the path of scientific
progress pioneered by Kristian Birkeland a century ago.

"It seems to be a natural consequence of our points of
view to assume that the whole of space is filled with
electrons and flying electric ions of all kinds." --
Kristian Birkeland
______

For your best gateway to the Electric Universe, see
Thunderbolts.info. And for a highly-acclaimed 60 minute video
introduction to the Electric Universe, see
Thunderbolts of the Gods on Google Video.